entative from Ohio,
who was a type of early Western culture and a born humorist. He
was a middle-sized, somewhat stout man, with pleasing manners, a
fine head, sparkling hazel eyes, and a complexion so dark that on
several occasions--as he used to narrate with great glee--he was
supposed to be of African descent. "There is no need of my working,"
said he, "for whenever I cannot support myself in Ohio, all I should
have to do would be to cross the river, give myself up to a Kentucky
negro-trader, be taken South, and sold for a field hand." He always
had a story ready to illustrate a subject of conversation, and the
dry manner in which he enlivened his speeches by pungent witticism,
without a smile on his own stolid countenance, was irresistible.

He was once addressing a Whig mass meeting at Marietta, Ohio, and
was taking especial pains not to say anything that could offend
the Abolitionists, who were beginning to throw a large vote. A
sharp witted opponent, to draw him out asked: "Shouldn't niggers
be permitted to sit at the table with white folks, on steamboats
and at hotels?" "Fellow-citizens," exclaimed Corwin, his swarthy
features beaming with suppressed fun, "I ask you whether it is
proper to ask such a question of a gentleman of my color?" The
crowd cheered and the questioner was silenced.

[Facsimile]
M. Van Buren
MARTIN VAN BUREN was born at Kinderhook, New York, December 5th,
1782; was a United States Senator from New York from December 3d,
1821, to December 20th, 1828, when he resigned to accept the office
of Governor of New York; this position he resigned on the 12th of
March, 1829, having been appointed by President Jackson Secretary
of State of the United States; this position he resigned August
1st, 1831, having been appointed by President Jackson Minister to
Great Britain, but the Senate rejected his nomination; was elected
Vice-President on the Jackson ticket in 1832; was elected President
in 1836; was defeated as the Democratic candidate for President in
1840; was the candidate of the Anti-Slavery party for President in
1848, and died at Kinderhook, New York, July 24th, 1862.

CHAPTER XV.
COMMENCEMENT OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT.

It was during the Administration of Mr. Van Buren that the English
Abolitionists first began to propagate their doctrines in the
Northern States, where the nucleus of an anti-slavery party was
soon formed. This alarmed the Southerners, who, under the lead o